Blue Moon Press ~ Connecticut
(Jim Lee)

The Immigrants
A poem Joe Napora
Images by Jim Lee
1992. Edition of 90.

5 x 9”; 12 pages. Text is letterpress printed from Jan Tschichold's Sabon with condensed Roman titling on Rives Heavyweight, Niddegen, and handmade Canterbury Rag papers. Images are printed from reduction woodcuts, collaged plates, an etched zinc plate and a photoengraving (the family portrait). Chapbook has one fold-out page and is pamphlet stitched into a decorated grey cover.

Napora has written a haunting and evocative poem inspired by a photograph of his immigrant father's family. Moreover, he draws parallels to Brueghel's famous painting of Icarus and to William Carlos Williams' poetic portrait based on the painting. Lee's five images, drawn from the family photograph, bring that portrait to full-feeling life. Together, Napora and Lee draw us closely in to those elements within the portrait that transmit the deeper story. More than a look at one man's family, this book portrays a way of looking into such a picture. It is a study in seeing.

A fine example of richness in simplicity.
$100

Place of the Long River:
A Connecticut River Anthology
By Jim Lee
1995. Edition of 125.

7.75 x 13”; 44 pages. Letterpress Garamond Roman and Italic in a range of point sizes on Rives Heavyweight. Images were cut from birch-covered plywood with the addition of stencils on some. Sewn into blue cloth over board with inset woodcut print on the front cover.

The book began as a personal exploration of a great river and its history. Over the course of two years, the project grew to combine the words of eight writers living in the Connecticut River Valley—two from each state it graces—with visual images based on Lee's journey's along the length of the river. The work in the anthology is varied, including fairly short poems and a few longer ones, a long haiku sequence, and a four-page prose excerpt. About half are previously unpublished. Some are as intimate as a quiet cove; others are as expansive as a view of the river valley from a mountaintop. The river is the thread running through and binding these works together.

Twenty-one woodcut images include fifteen, multicolored reduction prints that create richly hued views of the river and surrounding landscape. Many are full-page bleed images, and one unfolds to a wide view of the valley. They trace the river's path from its source at the Canadian border to its mouth at the Long Island Sound. A woodcut map is printed on both the front and back endsheets. The front map is marked by numbers corresponding to "A List of Images & their Locations" on the facing page. The back map is lettered to indicate "The Homes of the Writers" whose names are listed on the facing page along with their signatures. Exceptionally handsome.
$700